Culture Change, Human-Centered Design, and Ethical by Design as Transactional Cornerstone Concepts in the Development of Technology for Supporting Aging

There is a great deal of untapped potential for technology to support older adults, but to realise this potential technology development must go beyond good usability and addressing perceived needs to complement older adults' holistic lived experiences. This paper presents culture change, human-centered design, and ethical by design as complementary concepts that can be leveraged to gain a deeper understanding of how to better design, develop, and evaluate technology to support older adults. The application of these concepts is framed by the theory of transactionalism, whereby there is reciprocal dynamic interplay between how these concepts impact technology, technologists and other stakeholders, and ultimately the concepts themselves in the context of technology development. New paradigms such as the ones discussed in this paper can result in technologies that are better aligned with more complex and fundamental aspects of human nature.